Pluto

[History | Information | Moons | Data]

History

Pluto is named after the Roman God of the underworld. Even though it is at the far reaches of the solar system, it is not a Jovian Planet. American astronomer, Clyde Tombaugh, discovered the planet in 1930.
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Information

Unfortunately, not a lot of information is known about Pluto because of its small size and vast distance from the sun. It is presumed that Pluto is mostly made up of mostly frozen gasses and water, similar to most comets. This leads scientists to believe that Pluto is left over from the formation of the solar system. Because of its cold temperature, the ground of Pluto is comparable to steel on Earth.
Pluto's orbit is very elliptical and also inclined to the plane of the orbit of the other planets by approximately 17o. Because of its special orbit, some parts of its year, it is closer to the sun that Neptune.
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Moons

Pluto's large moon is named after Charon, the ferryman over the Styx, the river of the dead. Charon is very large compared to Pluto, it is said that Pluto and Charon orbit around each other. Charon was not discovered until 1977.

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Data

Distance from Sun: Mean— 3,666,200,000 mi. Shortest— 2,749,600,000 mi. Greatest— 4,582,700,000 mi. Closest approach to Earth— 2,670,000,000 mi. Length of year (earth-days)— 90,800 Average orbital speed— 2.95 mi. per sec. Diameter at equator— 1,430 mi. Rotation period— 6 earth days Tilt of axis "(degrees)— 98.8 Temperature— -387 to -369 *F Atmosphere: Pressure— ? Gasses— Methane, nitrogen Mass (Earth=1)— 0.002 Density (g/cubic cm)— 2.03 Gravity (Earth=1)— 0.07 Number of known satellites— 1

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